Is American Idol A Racist Show?

From the outside, American Idol has always seemed like an equal opportunity reality show. Between Adam Lambert and Fantasia Barrino and Carrie Underwood and Taylor Hicks, an extremely diverse group of people spanning ages, appearance levels, skin colors and sexual orientations not only starred but did extremely well on the program. Consequently, AI has never really generated many claims of racism or sexism, at least until now.

Earlier this month, nine former African-American contenders banded together for a potential lawsuit against the show. All of them were disqualified from the program for failing to disclose prior arrests, and if their attorney is to be believed, it’s not a coincidence that the powers that be decided to axe them when none were ever convicted of crimes. Apparently, it’s all a big conspiracy to exploit African-Americans in order to generate ratings.

According to TMZ, several former contestants have spoken out in recent days to defend the show and say they were all asked to disclose all former arrests and legal brushes they had. To some, their words have been enough to call into question the claims of racism, but to others, there’s still something very suspicious about all nine of the disqualified contestants being African-Americans.

What do you think? Are those behind American Idols discriminating against African-Americans, or are these claims without any merit? Let us know your thoughts by voting in the poll below…